Sunday, 23 November 2014

New observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have revealed alignments over the largest structures ever discovered in the Universe. A European research team has found that the rotation axes of the central supermassive black holes in a sample of quasars are parallel to each other over distances of billions of light-years. The team has also found that the rotation axes of these quasars tend to be aligned with the vast structures in the cosmic web in which they reside. A team led by Damien Hutsemékers from the University of Liège in Belgium used the FORS instrument on the VLT to study 93 quasars that were known to form huge groupings spread over billions of light-years, seen at a time when the Universe was about one third of its current age. "Alignments between galaxy axes and large-scale structures are expected in theories of structures and galaxy formation. The alignments between quasar axes and large-scale structures are found on much larger scales so that it is a bit mysterious and a challenge for the theory," Hutsemékers told astrowatch.net. The research was presented in a paper entitled “Alignment of quasar polarizations with large-scale structures“, by Damien Hutsemékers et al., to appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on 19 November 2014.

At the very end, evenAlbertEinsteinadmitted, "Myold friendhas left thisstrange worldin front of me.It does not meananything.People likeusknowthat the distinctionbetweenpast, presentandfutureonlystubbornlypersistentillusion. "

Sunday, 2 November 2014

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered a streamer of gas flowing from a massive outer disc toward the inner reaches of a young, low-mass binary star system GG Tau-A. The never-before-seen feature may be responsible for sustaining a second, smaller disc of planet-forming material that otherwise would have disappeared long ago. “We have demonstrated that the inner disks can be replenished with fresh material and are thereby potential sites of planet formation,” Emmanuel Di Folco, co-author of the study from the Laboratory of Astrophysics of Bordeaux, France told astrowatch.net. Our finding with ALMA is that there is a large amount of cold material that flows into the cavity (from the outer ring) towards the inner disk(s) and stars. The infalling material can nurture the inner disk(s) and extend their lifetime on timescales long enough to sustain planet formation therein.” The researchers detailed their findings in a paper to be published in the journal Nature on Oct. 30, 2014.